Northern Ireland as a whole has rallied to the aid of refugees - and a glimpse into one of the 'drop off' centres in Belfast shows the scale of the ongoing work in local communities.

Moves to support refugees increased tenfold after the emergence of the distressing image of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi who drowned this week after slipping from his desperate father’s arms off the Turkish coast.

Belfast Live stopped by Mayfield Village Hall, Newtownabbey, today where between 400 and 500 boxes have been packed up and are ready to be sent off.

Speaking there, a lady in her 50s from Damascus in Syria, was moved by the efforts of her friends in the area. She has lived in Northern Ireland for 25 years and was last in her home country in 2011.

She said that she was very happy with the response, and added: "I know these people very well and they are full of humility."

Austin Tanney set up Newtownabbey Calais Refugee Society on Facebook.

He told Belfast Live today: "What we're doing is we're trying to coordinate donations of aid for refugees. Obviously people have been really spurred into action by some of the photographs that we've seen in the media and on social media over the last few days.

"In three days here we've over 1000 members on Facebook. This is our first real collection that we've done... it's been incredible to see the reaction and the support we've had."